Getting married is, as it should be, a big deal in any country in the world. Russia is not an exception to this rule, even though in Russia the wedding is a big deal but marriage not as much, because of the simple reason that getting married in here involves two days of drinking and eating and dancing and enjoying life. I mean, who wouldn’t want to get hitched when it involves wearing a white dress or a or a nice costume, taking pictures at every single monument in town and gathering family and friends around a big table for two whole days? Plus, financial matters are rarely considered before hand, if ever even later. Most Russians don’t have much money anyway, despite the ruble ever rising with the oil price, and probably even less after the party is over and married life begins…

In Russia, despite the fact that it has grown into a very religious country since dropping its old atheist ways, getting married is still a state affair. You can get married in any given orthodox church if both of you are baptized, but it is merely a symbolic ritual and to make your union official you have to show up at the local ZAGS office to sign the papers and register your marriage. Most Russians, however, choose not to go through the tedious ritual in church but are more than content with just registering at the local ZAGS office. After registering most couples do a tour of their city with the closest of family and friends, those who were present when the papers were signed, to place flowers at every kind of monument in the city and take pictures of the couple there. The vehicle used for this tour of the city can differ from anything between a Lada and a limousine, but it should be noted that during the past couple of years it has been proved that you can never go wrong with a white Hummer limousine in Russia.

After this it is high time to treat family and friends to a large amount of food and alcohol, which is usually done at a restaurant or café booked in advance. The rule for the “dinner” is that there can never be too much wine or vodka or too much food or cake. Usually Russian weddings involve many strange games that the guests play and drinking whenever someone raises their glass to give a speech and wishing the couple all the best and so on and so forth. Also the guests are expected to shout «горько!» [bitter!] at the newlyweds every once in a while, after which they are expected to kiss. As of yet, despite asking many Russians, I have not found any logical explanation to this tradition. But it sure is fun.

The wedding that I had the pleasure to be a part of last weekend was quite different from the “usual” Russian wedding. The couple, Sergey and Marina (my boyfriend’s older sister), registered at the ZAGS office a couple of days before gathering family and friends at a café, which caused everyone to name it “the unusual wedding” straight away. They did not do any tour of the city of Nizhny Tagil, located in the northern part of the Ural Mountains. At the party there were no strange games played, even though there was a lot of «горько!» going on followed by many, many kisses. There was no lack of alcohol or food, which I think might be enough for it to be considered “a Russian wedding”. The only thing that left family and friends feeling deeply and truly disappointed was the fact that it only lasted 12 hours instead of usual two whole days…

«горько!»